Charlotte Huggins was a producer for “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” which opens today.

Upon graduating from UC San Diego in 1980, Charlotte Huggins was sure she was headed for law school at USD, followed by a career in international relations. All of that changed after she spent the summer working on films produced by a local political organization and realized her talent for getting projects off the ground. Now one of the most prolific 3-D film producers in history, Huggins has not only traveled the world, but transformed the way we see it on the big screen through films like “Journey to Center of the Earth” (2008) and its sequel, in theaters today, “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.”

After Huggins set law school aside, she went to Hollywood, first as a TV writer, then as a visual effects producer for Super Bowl-sized commercials. But she didn’t discover her passion until she started working on large-format films for special venues, including the Disney 3-D theme park ride “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,” a project that Huggins says inspired the rest of her career.

In a recent phone interview, Huggins recalled that she was “totally taken with 3-D,” especially after sitting in on a screening of “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” at Disney World’s Epcot. “I sat in the bottom corner and watched people watch the movie over and over for two days straight,” she said. “I was amazed to see 6-year-olds and 90-year-olds all completely lost in the story, immersed in the event in front of them. I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. I have to do that.’ And I’ve never stopped. I’ve worked in every format in film and video that exists in 3-D in the world.”

As a pioneer in 3-D production, Huggins has witnessed the rapid shifts in technology and how they’ve transformed the filmmaking process. “I used to say, ‘3-D means three times the problems.’ And that’s how it used to be,” the savvy producer said, referring to the practice of shooting 3-D on film, as opposed to digital. “One hundred things have to be right to get a good shot — the wind, the air, the performance, the makeup, the hair, everything. In 2-D that’s hard. In 3-D you have to get everything right, times two.”

But that all changed in 2006, when Huggins and her team began production on “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the first all-digital, 3-D production that went on to earn more than $240 million worldwide. Leaving film behind meant that director Eric Brevig could have instantaneous, high-quality playback throughout shooting, and the ability to fix mistakes in postproduction, making for a more efficient production overall. “I don’t know how we would’ve made ‘Journey’ if there hadn’t been digital capture,” Huggins said.

Since the first “Journey” film, 3-D technology has made even more significant leaps forward, with much of the credit going to James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar.” But before he deployed his specially designed cameras on his own film, Cameron put them to use on “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” visiting the set to assess their performance and, ultimately, to perfect them for “Avatar.” “I would say the ‘Journey’ movies have really helped pave the way for this 3-D revolution,” Huggins said.